C$N+t=H+S AN IN I RODII( IION •••.•..................•••••••••.......•.••••..............•.•.•.•. :.! Including The Tale of Four Doors, the Background of our story, a Summary of the Adventures, notes on Preparing for Play, and an Overview of the Key Figures in these Adventures. PRULUl,UL: Al IIIL S111\l'IHH1TEMPLE •••••......•.....••••..............•...•..........• If, ln which the seeds of the Four Adventures are planted, our Heroes receive an invitation, and Chaos breaks loose in the shadow of the Shattered Temple. I Ill rlRST DooR: TIIL TIIUWANIN GARCiOYI F . • • • . • • . ....... 24 ln which our Heroes are mistaken for a famous Solver of Mysteries and are hired by Estavan of the Planar Trade Consortium to recover a simple ledger from beyond an impossible door. THE SccoNu DuoR: T11L FoRc,onrN Vl\llLT .•...••......•....•....••.........••••......... H, ln which our Heroes must leap toward Certain Death to discover the fate of Garmundi the Street Preacher at the behest of the Athar or the Will of the One. TIil THIRD UocJR:Loc,1c·11s PRIME • • • . • . • • • • • • • • • . • • • • . .... .-16 In which our Heroes enter the Third Door and find themselves on a Prime World where Magic doesn't function and everything - even the inhabitants - is mechanical in Nature. I ill hlllRTH DOOR:A RLAI.IIY BLYOND ....••••......••........••.•••......•....•••....... ':>4 In which our Heroes enter a Higher Reality and discover that some Secrets are best left in the dark. Mt:RC llRI.\I • . • . • . • . • . • • • • • . • • • . G2 A MONSTROUSCoMPENDI~ sheet detailing the newest planar creature to cross our Heroes' paths. Al IIR~l.\111. G4 ln which our Heroes learn the dark of what has gone before and receive their Deserved Rewards. CRt=Dl+S Designer: Bill Slavicsek ♦ Editor: Cindi M. Rice Cover Artist: Robh Ruppel ♦ Interior Art: Adam Rq, Brian DeSpain, and Tony DiTerlizzi Cartography: Roy Boholst ♦ Typography: Angelika Lokotz Project Coordinator: Karen S. Boomgarden ♦ Art Director: Bob Galica ♦ Border Artist: Robert Repp Electronic Prepress Coordinator: Dave Conant Graphic Design/Cover: Dawn Murin ♦ Graphic Design: Dee Barnett Special Thanks: Michele Carter and Ray Vallese ♦ Proofreading: Miranda Horner ADVANCEDDUNGEONS fl DRAGONS, AD&D, DUNGEONMASTER, MONSTROUS(OMPENlllUM, TSR,Inc. TSRLtd. PLANESCAPE,the TSR logo, and the Lady or Pain logo are registered trademarks ownc-d 201 Sheridan Springs Rd. 120 Church End by TSR, Inc. All TSR characters, character names. and lhc distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. 0 1996 TSR, Inc. All Rights Re-served.This Lake Geneva Cherry Hinton material ls protected under the copyright laws of U1cUnited States or America. Any Samplereproduction or unauthorized use of the materialfile contained herein Is prohibited WI 53147 CambridgeCB l JLB without lhe express written consent of TSR, Inc. Random House and its aflillate USA United Kingdom companies have worldwide distribution rights in lhe book trade for English-language products of TSR, Inc. Distributed to Ute toy and hobby trade by regional distributors. • Distributed lo the book and hobby trade in the United Kingdom by TSR Ltd. Doors. They stand there, smug in their frames - hiding, protecting, or confining whatever waits behind them. Closed doors arouse curiosity, mani­ festing as a sudden urge to throw them open and expose their secrets. Open doors inspire good feelings: a sense of ..i D CT N welcome, a forthrightness that can't be I N + ~ u I denied. Some doors, closed or open, incite •a darker emotions: anger, jealousy, even fear. Some doors should be ignored, left closed, avoided like ghostlight on a misty eve. The things behind them should remain hidden or confined, at least out of sight. That's the real chant: "Some doorknobs are better left unturned. " That's the case with a certain quartet of doors. These aren't doors in the traditional sense, but they're portals just the same. They exist within bounded spaces - frames, if you will - in differ­ ent locations throughout Sigil. Yes, Sigil. The Cage. The City of Doors. The Center of Everything and the Last Stop Before Everywhere. That makes these doors special, curious, even terrifying. What's beyond these doors? What mysteries wait on the other side? Take a look. Open each door and step through. Before proceeding, just remember what happened to Erigan 's cat. It got squashed flat beneath the hooves of a drunken bariaur down in the Market Ward, but not before it peeked into an open door and satisfied its curiosity, and not before it looked into the frighten­ ing face of the Unknown . ... ♦ THE TALE EDFFEBUR DEBEBRS♦ Garmundi wore the tattered garments of a beggar, his face caked with the dirt of many bathless seasons, long hair tangled like razorvine over his shoulders, and a knptty beard that even a cranium rat wouldn't use as a kip. Still, Gar­ mundi wasn't a simple beggar. This dwarf was a beggar with a higher purpose. He was a street preacher {at least on days when there were berks and Clueless to preach to), using the toppled stones of the Shattered Temple as his pulpit and a mostly emptied jug of fermented portal ooze as his collection plate. Gar­ mundi was ignored by the Athar {who s_awhis very existence as proof of their beliefs}, tolerated by the Harmonium {who had bigger troublemakers to arrest], and served as a bajJling diversion to everyone who heard his sermons. Listen hard, 'cause the dark of it was that Garmundi 's chatter was pleas­ ant enough, even powerful in a jumbled, confusing, senseless sort of way. Still, it was clearly the preaching of a barmy who was more than a few wheels short of a wagon. He stood atop tumbled stones along the edges of the Shattered Temple, shouting about doors and portals, dead gods and forgotten religions, the Lady, jinkfor the unclean light boys, and a dabus in every kip. It was a fa­ miliar rattle, cobbled together from a dozen different litanies so that it only Samplemade sense to a Xaositect, but Garmundi's voicefile was strong and musical, so a handful of passersl,y always stopped to listen. That changed a week ago. Garmundi 's sermons had always included a few scattered references to the faith that once filled the Shattered Temple. Aoskar, a name that Jew dare speak in the Cage, always slipped from Garmundi's mouth at least once or twice before any sermon ended. A week ago, the dwarf street preacher suddenly lost his confused words and barmy un­ dertones. In short, he started to make sense. Now the Athar have taken notice, the Harmonium have grown less tolerant, and the handfuls have become genuine crowds. Even do.bus come to the temple, but they make a specific pretense of being involved in something else while they listen. On a typical day in the Lower Ward, the air thick with smoke and cinders, Garmundi 's voice sings from the temple ruins, drawing listeners like thieves to free jink. On such a day, a cutter can hear Garmundi's words clearly. ... "The time of the Four Doors is at hand!" the filthy dwarf shouts from his perch atop a crumbled pillar. "These doors that are gone are always here, present but rarely accessible - the doors to the unknown places. " Listen to Garmundi's chant, but keep an eye on the crowd. Over there, a group of displeased Athar scowl and conspire in dangerous whispers. Near the edge of the crowd, Harmonium bas hers stare angrily at the dwarf preacher as their anxious fingers curl around waiting weapons. The listeners hang on every word that rumbles from Garmundi's mouth. This collection of sods, including the few dabus roaming around the perimeter, appears to be captivated - not a common occurrence for Sigil's jaded populace. On a signal from the Athar cutters, the Harmonium bas hers move, parting the crowd with crisp orders, strong arms, and the occasional swing of a club. serne DEBEBRKNEBBS Garmundi leaps to another jagged pillar, this one jutting over a deep crack in the temple's foundation. "The Four Doors return!" the dwarf ARE BE++ER LEF+ shouts as a raging whirlwind spins into existence in the hole. He UN+URNED. leaps, falling toward the sharp stones far below. The crowd gasps, - $1,.D PE+I+l$NER CHAN+ and the Harmonium reaches the crack's precarious edge. "What addle-coved nonsense is this?" one basher grumbles as he peers into the hole. "He gave us the laugh," another says angrily, turning to look into the crowd. "Find him!" the lead Hardhead shouts. "That dwarf has broken the laws of Sigil and the Lady!" ♦ BACK.GR9UND ♦ . In Sigil, the City of Doors, there're a wide variety of portals to other places. Some look and function like normal doors until the proper gate keys pass through them. Others resemble gates and portals in only the most basic respects. To an experienced planewalker, there's nothing new about these types of por­ tals, or the way they function. They're the usual doors for getting from one end of the multiverse to the other. A blood needs to tumble to the dark of what're called blinks, or intermittent portals. Like shifting portals, blinks appear and disappear seemingly at random. They can only be accessed at certain points in the blink cycles, which usually have short periods of activity followed by long periods of inactivity. Most blinks have discernible patterns, if a cutter has the patience and understanding to figure them out. The Four Doors that Garmundi was rattling his bone-box about are blinks of a most unusual and dan­ gerous nature. That's what makes them so important. First, these blinks only appear once every 500 years. They always appear in the same four loca­ tions, becoming active at the same time and remaining that way for about two months.